Smart 50 Awards Finalists Announced

Smart 50 Awards review committee, Smart Cities Connect, US Ignite, and Smart Cities Connect Foundation proudly announce the 2018 Smart 50 Award Finalists. These municipal-scale projects exemplify innovation and concrete influence in their community or communities or implementation. Finalists will receive honors at an awards gala to be held on March 26, 2018 in Kansas City, Missouri.

“We were overwhelmed with strong submissions from over one dozen countries and covering solution areas from waste management to smart glass to safer streets,” said Smart Cities Connect managing editor Laura Benold. “We want to do something different with the Smart 50 Awards and to look at actual implementation as a key driving force behind recognition. Smart projects are happening all around us in ways that aren’t always apparent, and we want to shed light on those.”

In addition to the five categories of governance, mobility, energy, citizen life, and networks, this year the organization also honors special projects with Horizon and Community Awards. Horizon Awardees show great promise for future development and Community Awardees demonstrate a significant groundswell of support from an engaged city community.

“US Ignite congratulates the Smart 50 award winners. These projects represent some of the most important recent innovations in Smart and Connected Communities,” said US Ignite founder and CTO Glenn Ricart. “Projects like these are inspirational to the smart communities movement as a whole.”

In addition to the awards gala, Smart Cities Connect concurrently hosts Smart Cities Connect Conference & Expo March 26-29, 2018. Attendees may take advantage of four pre-event workshops on March 26 before jumping into three packed days of panels, keynote presentations, application demonstrations, and the largest smart cities expo in North America.

Focus areas for the event will include networks and data, energy and buildings, infrastructure and resilience, mobility, and citizen life and governance, as reflected in the award categories.